Late Press

[dave.woodhall]

Sorry it took so long.

http://thebirminghampress.com/

[Steve67]

Sadly, for all of the punditry support castigating Kevin Friend's dreadful decision on Saturday, whilst it might be good to hear, it does not a jot for Villa's plight and I hope that single point does not prove decisive at the end of the season.

I agree about the physicality in midfield too Dave.

[darren woolley]

Another great read Dave.

[Hookeysmith]

I totally agree that time is right for Dean to look at increasing our DF department

Conor or Marvellous should be added and play with only one wide man as such

[dave.woodhall]

Another great read Dave.

Thanks Daz.

[dcdavecollett]

Actually, Dave, I understand that Peter Walton, BT Sports 'refereeing expert' came out after watching the replay and accused Grealish of diving.

What a twat!!

At least Friend gave his verdict after seeing it once at normal speed.

[Diablo]

Great read and title. Appreciate the foul fact as it goes some way to supporting what I thought was one of the most infuriating and inept refereeing performances I've ever had the misfortune of watching. I suppose it would be small consolation but I would be interested to hear what other howlers he's had with other teams as it did seem so overtly biased on the day (highlighted when he did eventually start booking their players on both occasions holding up 3 fingers to tell them it was their 3rd offence!!).


edit - just read that Klopp had a run in with him

[Diablo]

Not sure why the link has now changed to Mosley Folk & Arts Festival?

[dave.woodhall]

Not sure why the link has now changed to Mosley Folk & Arts Festival?

It's the front page. The match report has dropped down the page.

[Diablo]

Ah cheers Dave. For a moment following your title I feared there was some trippy musical (the Ghost of Joe Cocker) related shenanigans going on.   

[JD]

Good read Dave and a great title.

[The Edge]

Good article that. With reference to VAR i think "less a way of righting wrongs than of defending poor referees" hits the nail right on the head. First up i'm not a fan of VAR. I find it unnecessary. I think it's the most fundamental change to association football since the introdution of goal nets in the late 1800's and it's got some major flaws. For me goal-line technology is marvellous because it's completely devoid of interpretation or bias. Technology should stop there. VAR can never work in it's current format. Ex-referees aren't going to be keen to overturn blunders like the one K.Friend managed because it highlights the fact that his refereeing chum is an incompetent pillock. Imagine having to come face to face at one of their numerous jollys, cough,cough,  i mean conventions. Even when it's not being used as incompetently as Saturday it's still massively fallible imo. Offsides for example are adjudged using the same images that we see at home on our ultra high definition screens and when they slap a red and blue line across the screen it's just not accurate enough to give decisions based on a few microns. If your being that specific to disallow a goal you have to be just as certain of the exact split second the ball leaves the passers boot. And it just is not that accurate. It's a flawed system being used as judge and jury by people with their own vested interests. It's ruining our game. It's a NO from me.

[chrisw1]

The offside lines will be significantly more accurate than the naked eye and will surely be better than accepting the huge blunders we sometimes see?

I agree it's not working in it's current format - but it absolutely can.  Rugby is the best example. I know it's a different sport and a lot more stop start, but the interaction between the ref and video ref is what they need to take from it. 

In a working system there's no reason why Friend couldn't have let the play go through to the goal and then said, look I think Grealish dived and I want to take a look at that in more detail.  He then takes another look on a video screen - lets have one at both ends of the pitch - and makes his call.

The point is, without VAR we will always be subject to travesties like Saturday.  With a fuctioning VAR they can and will be avoided in future.

[The Edge]

The offside lines will be significantly more accurate than the naked eye and will surely be better than accepting the huge blunders we sometimes see?

I agree it's not working in it's current format - but it absolutely can.  Rugby is the best example. I know it's a different sport and a lot more stop start, but the interaction between the ref and video ref is what they need to take from it. 

In a working system there's no reason why Friend couldn't have let the play go through to the goal and then said, look I think Grealish dived and I want to take a look at that in more detail.  He then takes another look on a video screen - lets have one at both ends of the pitch - and makes his call.

The point is, without VAR we will always be subject to travesties like Saturday.  With a fuctioning VAR they can and will be avoided in future.

Thats just it though.The offside lines you see on your screen are exactly the same ones they see. It's just not precise enough to disallow a goal on fractions of an inch. And regarding Mr Friend there wetr several things he could have done. The right thing was to allow the move to develop then if he suspected that Grealish had dived he could have asked for a review by VAR or they would have looked at it anyway. The point is he WANTED to book Grealish.

[PeterWithesShin]

The right thing was to allow the move to develop then if he suspected that Grealish had dived he could have asked for a review by VAR or they would have looked at it anyway. The point is he WANTED to book Grealish.

VAR doesn't look at dives, so the goal would have stood on that scenario even if Grealish had blatantly tried to cheat.